I realized that the actors that I liked and admired all went to drama school and got an agent that way. So I started when I was about 16 in drama school, and then I knew I had to wait until I was 18 so I could go on auditions, and I tried to get into one of the ones that I liked and then go from there.
I love film, but I feeling a bit needy about returning to the stage.
I want to do something original rather than interpret someone else's performance, which is always the risk - even if it's only in a subconscious way. I want to concentrate on giving my own fresh interpretation.
I'm always eager to work with people I admire, people who have experience, who've made mistakes and made great things. That's the greatest teaching I could ever get in developing my own career.
I think, as a generation of British actors, we're becoming a bit soft and too manipulated by the business.
I know straight away if there are roles I don't want to do, and I have a lot of arguments with my agents about those.
It's so much nicer to be able to do your job with someone who's helping you, and you're helping them. Then, it becomes a tennis match where you're hitting the ball back and forth, and you're a team.
I'm a big believer in playing truth and not doing things for effect. It's not about whether you look pretty or glamorous. It's about whether people connect. That's important to me in any work I do. For me, the key is always trying to find the connection between the audience and the character I'm playing.
Every job I've done so far, every character has been completely different, and that's really important to me because I don't want to fall into a stereotypical box. Of course, every actor has their box, and you have to respect and play for it, but I do love challenging myself.
Love every role to be new, and I always like to bring a freshness to every character I play, but that comes down to the script. So, it's important that it's a good script with good, truthful characters and truthful subjects.
Award ceremonies are strange because you're sitting next to someone you've never met; you're celebrating with a total stranger.
I try to be respectful and talk to any fan and sign anything that anyone wants. Without the fans, you're not much. You need fans to do this job. I've got a nice little following, and it seems to be growing as each thing comes out.
Different films, different genres show the different things I do. It's nice because it brings different groups of people to following what I'm doing. So hopefully, it kind of reiterates that I'm not just a one-trick pony as well.
For me as a Welsh actor, Richard Burton is one of my biggest idols. And I've got so many: Peter O'Toole, Laurence Olivier and Oliver Reed. If they got 'Hunky Dory' and 'Citadel' offered to them, they would do completely different jobs on both of them.
I like to portray things as close to the bone as possible.
If you have 130 people on set, all with different opinions, sometimes it's going to kick off. There might be some people who say I'm a big problem to work with - that you couldn't tell me anything - but hopefully, they don't.
I love changing my roles. I think the most important thing that I can do for myself is to keep changing the genres, the periods, the characters themselves.
That's acting for you. 'White Queen' has English playing Welsh and vice versa.
I try to look after myself, but I don't think it's a good thing to be obsessed with body image. I wouldn't want a son or daughter of mine to feel manipulated by that; it's the wrong message.
I tend to invest a little more than I should when I do musicals, so it takes a lot out of me and my personal life.
